This invention relates generally to a vehicle surface guard which is useful to protect the lateral surfaces such as doors, fenders, and the like from becoming scratched, dented, and nicked (usually caused from the driver or passenger of another vehicle opening the door of the other vehicle against the vehicle to be protected).
Various types of vehicle body or door guard strips have been suggested in the prior art. Some of these strips include large, thick, plastic, rubber, or metal types of guard strips which, although in some respects protective, are aesthetically unpleasing and drag inducing. Other types of strips with a low drag profile which are aesthetically pleasing fail to sufficiently protect the vehicle surface because the size, shape and disposition are too small for them to be effective.
The present invention ovecomes the problems of the prior art by providing for rigid, protective strips which are horizontally disposed along the lateral sides of a vehicle which in the retracted position have the aesthetic appearance of conventional, side protective strips but which may be moveably extended, outwardly, away from the lateral sides of the vehicle a sufficient distance to insure that the vehicle's lateral side surfaces will be adequately protected against contact with another vehicle. The invention provides for manually or automatically moving each strip reciprocally between retracted and extended positions using pneumatic, electrical, hydraulic, or manual power.